"DID MY HEART LOVE TILL NOW?": Sarah Kolozsvary of Exeter is Juliet andGriffin Smith of Lee is Romeo in the Oyster River Players production of"Romeo and Juliet" at the Exeter Town Hall on April 12, 13, and 14.

EXETER — Learning the lines for a Shakespeare play, says Eben Ritchie, 12, of Durham, is like learning “a whole ‘nother language,” but he’s done it before and he knows it’s well worth the effort. He’ll be playing Benvolio when the Oyster River Players bring “Romeo and Juliet” to the Exeter Town Hall on April 12, 13, and 14. A year ago he played a comedic role in “The Tempest” and enjoyed hearing the reaction of audience members “who laughed till they cried.”

This time his character, Romeo’s cousin, is “sort of the peacemaker in the play,” says Eben. It is, of course, the feud between the Montague and Capulet families that dooms the young lovers, and director Kelly Eggers has set the play in contemporary times on a school playground to emphasize that the problem of gang violence is still very much with us. “Gangs don’t have to be from inner cities,” she says. “There were the two famous feuding hillbilly families, the Hatfields and the McCoys. Gangs can be countries. It’s deep in American culture and it’s in English culture. It’s everywhere.”

The lessons of “Romeo and Juliet,” says Eggers, are lessons that need to be learned again and again, and the play is especially good for a youth theater company. In this production, with actors ranging from 8 to 18, even the youngest players can make Shakespeare’s language their own.

“The kids love that they’re taking this meaty, gritty story with these beautiful words and putting it together,” she says. “And once they get their tongues around those words, there’s a real magic. You love it forever and you own it, and it expands your universe.”

Oyster River Players present “Rome and Juliet,” on Friday, April 12, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, April 13, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, April 14, at 1 p.m. Suggested donation: adults, $8; children, $5. Tickets at the door only. For more information: 603-312-2228 or orplist@aol.com. On the Web: www.oysterriverplayers.org.